It looks to be dropping though: https://www.economist.com/node/16536800
>The market value of gold is dominated by its practical and aesthetic uses.
Should we really consider aesthetics here? Practical use cases within technology I can totally value.
Crypto is ... currently, at least, not where you go if you want something with a reliable, stable value.
And yeah, I think aesthetic value counts! It's also very much a psychological thing, and it's undeniably tied into a similar "I think this is valuable because other people will see it and think it looks valuable" loop; if gold were much cheaper, we wouldn't see as much gold jewelry. But it's also genuinely one of the better metals to make jewelry out of (doesn't corrode, ductile, nobody's allergic to it) and it's quite a pretty color. It's more fickle than industrial use, sure, but it's also much less fickle than investor speculation.